a) Lol - the headline is very clickbaity. No "bad" to "worse", lol.
b) Looking @ the bigger picture - many times (not saying it is necessarily the case here, I don't know the full specifics) - but organizations like the FTCare weaponized against certain companies. So look @ the companies who are 'attacking' adobe - those are the real culprits.
c) Don't know the specifics of whether cancellation is/was difficult - I do know (smaller) companies to resort to tactics like that - not sure about Adobe's case. It would seem unusual simply because bigger/larger companies tend to be under more scrutiny. If they did - then yes, they should make it easier. If it was isolated incidents - then rectify those.
d) Not "all" the fault is of the company if indeed certain things were buried in the fine print. People actually SHOULD read license agreements - but most don't. And then those that do - many don't challenge it - just 'giving up'. So part of the onus is on the individuals who didn't actually read the fine print if it actually says that.

Anyways, sounds like something the company will need to deal with/handle. That's (unfortunately) part of business.

As an FYI - I don't particularly care for the 'subscription' model - but - it is more profitable model on many different counts - so I understand why Adobe, as well as other companies like Amazon, Bloomberg, Midjourney, all do the same...

I crunched some numbers a few times a while back, and this is what I found...

a) If you have an option to 'upsell' from HD to 4k (i.e., two different prices), then yes, many times customers will choose the 4k option meaning more $$$
b) If there are two nearly identical clips from different producers, but one has 4K, then yes, it seems more often customers will choose the 4K option

That being said...
a) If you sell a lot via Adobe, Adobe changed video licensing so 4K is the SAME revenue as HD. I believe this is a bit short sighted - because it is a bit of a 'race to the bottom' mentality - however, that's what they did. So you don't make any extra $$ for 4K than you would for HD, other than if you have a nearly identical HD clip to say a competitor that has a 4K clip, and the client is presented with both, a % will probably choose the 4K option (meaning the competitor gets that revenue)
b) Unlimited download sites don't differentiate (i.e., storyblocks, motionarray, etc, etc). So no real incentive here either, other than from time to time some clients will want a 4K version if the clip is nearly identical (meaning a competitor gets the 'sale').
c) Only sites where you can have different pricing in individual clip sales would I say there is any real addtional bonus value (in terms of revenue to the producer).

So right now...

While by default I record (with a camera/etc) in 4K (no big deal to push a button between 4K/HD)... If I am manually producing a clip (i.e., CGI), then I opt for the HD version, because there is no real (easily measurable) major benefit to have my computer system work 4x as hard to do 4K CGI/3D/etc... because those computer generated/processed/etc videos are unique, so if the client wants it, the client wants it.

In terms of 'working' with 4K clips - I agree with you - HD is much easier to work with, and personally I've never really found too much benefit to 4K unless I needed some extra high quality/zooming/cropping/etc abilities. Also - for some sites (i.e., motionarray) - I found the clip sizes WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to big (ridiculously big in some cases) - where a 15 second clip was like 1 GIGABYTE - making it almost useless. (Because I would have to downsample the clip to be able to work with it effectively). I definitely preferred storyblocks where I could get 2-10MB HD clips to edit with.

So bottom line, I'd say:

a) If you can record in 4K vs HD, and it is no real extra effort to you to process the videos - go for it. I would say there is 'marginal' benefit for you in terms of sales, in that if you have a nearly identical clip to a competitor - a % will opt for the 4K version meaning some x-tra revenue for you.
b) HOWEVER... if you are doing say computer generated stuff (CGI/3D/etc), or extra post-processing to your clips - then there (right now) is no real point to spending all those xtra computing resources to produce 4K content - unless you can find a marketplace that sells 4K clips well for you.

You cannot opt-out. It's accepting it or leaving them.

You actually "can" opt-out. You don't "have" to blindly accept whatever they offer. You can refuse, re-negotiate, walk away, etc.

Yes, they are using that 'threat', which is very evil/wrong - so contact them and let them know. And be prepared to walk away if you have to, because it is a very poor "deal".

messed up irony is - what if it is a "stolen" portfolio doing a "copyright claim" against your stuff?

Are you a stock video producer yourself? If not - I'd suggest signing up for 6-7 different agencies, upload some clips yourself, to get a 'feel' for what is lacking and/or how easy/hard it is.

I'd say for most it really comes down to this:

a) Most people want to do very little, if any, work.
b) And they want to have HUGE MASSIVE PROFITS FOREVER AND EVER.

So if you can do that - cool.

While I haven't specifically taken a look at your site:

a) Make it super easy to upload & automatically categorize everything. People like EEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSY.

b) Have some basic theft deterrent things (otherwise you'll get east indians, etc stealing complete portfolios and uploading as their own). They already do that on the 'big' agencies - but the big agencies kind of don't really care. (Educated guess it is because they get money 2x over - 1st, for the (stolen) content - then 2nd - they get to keep "ALL" the profit when they 'take down' stolen content (they don't give it to the original contributor even though they should). But many producers find it extremely annoying when their portfolio is stolen. So put in some basic anti-theft stuff. Easy to do (none of the stupid "id verify" crap, that has nothing to do with safety/security - and much more to do with a small group of pyschopaths trying to control everything) - do it intelligently on the server end via programming when uploads take place. Super easy to do - and none of the 'id verify' crap (again, totally wrong, and totally unnecessary).

c) Then - of course - sales. Your MAIN "feature" should be focusing on how to drive MASSIVE MASSIVE sales. Producers/contributors really don't care too much else other than this. They don't care if you let them chose a pink or blue background, whether you let them upload an avatar, whether your font size is 12pt or 20pt. They care about MONEYYYYYYY AKA SALES. If you can make them lots and lots of MONEY, very easily without having to do a lot of work uploading/categorizing/etc - then they will be VERY VERY HAPPY.

That though, in a way, is a little bit of tricky part. It CAN be done - but requires a bit of work/focus/etc. Since you wish to act as a bit of an aggregate - much easier for you to do.

Funny thing is though - IF you start actually seeing the sales - you will actually (most likely) find you need to implement some type of moderation (which makes me suspect you aren't actually a producer, and rather a coder looking for an opportunity).

Simply because - you'll get morons that start uploading pornographic content, pure crap (like just absolute disgusting filth), spamming crap (i.e., 5000 videos of chickens), etc, etc... So you will actually need to do that, whether you do it now, or later. Unless - of course - your business plan is slightly different and you don't care about that - which - "could" work - but - it's a different business plan. So most likely you'll need to have some type of moderation. So you really shouldn't make that promise - because that is not really what contributors care about.

I'll re-iterate.

They care about:

a) SUPER EASY uploading with VERY LITTLE WORK categorizing/etc
b) Making sure easy indians + other cultures who like to steal & resell other people's works don't do that (quite simple to implement, and not with the stupid id verify thing. Just verify uploads, you are a coder, you know its simple to do).
c) And then MAKE MONEY! LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY! Figure out an effective marketing plan. Then ppl will be very interested.

That's what you do.

123RF is dead. It's a zombie at this point. I'm earning about 1.5% of what I used to earn 4 years ago.

Since the recent Google algorithm update in September 2023, 123RF has lost 70% of their traffic.

https://x.com/lilyraynyc/status/1786459214484787509

Look at the right column and you will see it on the list. They're never going to recover, so it's time to give up on this website.

Interesting - what specific agenda is she referring to those sites having lost so much traffic? (I'm sure there probably is one - google is known to steal other people's ideas and call them "new search features")...

Thanks!

Sadly though - I think it is a bit of a "closing the gate after the horse has left the barn" situation...

I am assuming some of those agencies (the really dishonest ones, i.e., shutterstock that quickly 'sold' the assets THEN said 'ah! here's an opt out) - sold them to the "main" companies (i.e., chatGPT/midjourney/etc that already stole tons of data) - and the only new "data deals" would be new "startups" that are like 'oh gee whiz! we should make an 'AI' image thing!)...

So it is really only hurting 'new competition' (which I suppose those companies wanted, because it is a company tactic - get massive market share - then once you do - impose all sorts of 'rules' and 'regulations' to make it very difficult for new players to get on board so you can enjoy a monopoly)... only its a slight 'twist' here in that once they (the 'major' players) did a quick steal + "purchase" via deception plan - THEN they had the "opt-out" buttons to make it more difficult for new players to enter the market... sneaky + dishonest...

Anyways, thanks for providing the links.

Alright, seems isn't big thing anymore. I was thinking myself to record some 360 videos and put it online. But wasn't sure whenever it is worth it or no, as it requires more editing than traditional video.

Yes. There are still applications for 360 video - but at the moment - specifically for selling 'stock footage', it doesn't seem to be in that much of demand.
If you decide to do real estate footage (i.e., filming houses for real estate agents) - you may find that to be a lot more lucrative. While I have not personally done that - I have heard of people getting paid between $100-$500 "per house" for doing that (as well as drone footage). But it is not necessarily 'as easy' as it sounds - because you have to (a) find a real estate agent who doesn't already have a photographer, (b) find one that won't try to nickle/dime you/figure if they have a camera, that makes 'them' a photographer, etc etc.

Quote from: SuperPhoto on June 02, 2024, 04:52

... in addition to companies like "ipsos mori" polls (which is latin for "they die") pushing the convid scam ....

Your Google translation is wrong.
Ipsos is either a nomen or the plural pronoun of ipse. This would then mean �themselves� and not �they�. Depending on the context, mori has the meaning: dying, blackberry, law, regulation, etc.

Latin cannot be translated, but must be analysed in context.

But it doesn't matter. There is also a comprehensible explanation for the naming:

�Our name - Ipsos MORI - was formed in 2005 by the merger of Ipsos, founded in France in 1975 with its named derived from the Latin phrase �ipso facto� and Market and Opinion Research International (MORI), founded in the UK in 1969. This merger created our name: Ipsos MORI�, it explained.

Incidentally, I would also be careful with the MSG Forum. MSG = mori sadistici grex

Hi,

Thank-you. Yes, I agree with you that context is important.

If you dig a bit deeper (past the wikipedia 'company' statement) - you'll find the people organizing what was going on (a) plan decades in advance, (b) like to mock people/make fun of them. The phrase "ipsos mori" was actually intended to mock people. That particular company was a big 'promoter' of what was going on, and it was just one example of the 'mocking' that goes on...

As a different example of the mocking (making fun of, part of their 'rituals' - basically 'they' (the people who organized what was going on) - feel they "have" to let people know what is going on, but generally like to do it slightly 'coded' because they think they are smarter than everyone else, and subsequently like to make fun of them (aka 'mocking' them) because they figure they are too 'dumb' to understand. As another example - the major 'variants' (which btw are ALL bogus) - were promoted heavily - like the "Mu" variant back in 2021 I think it was (sounds like 'moo moo', aka 'cows', 'herd mentality', making fun of ppl/i.e., trying to say that they are as dumb + controllable as a herd of cows), and the "Ba2" variant (baaa baa -> sheep/do whatever they are told/etc), then the "Ba4" variant (baa baa baa baa, because "they" figured people were too dumb to figure out 'ba2' was so made even more fun of them).  Yes - the "news" stories were that "they" were "randomly" choosing greek letters/etc for the "official naming" convention - but that was just to pacify those too lazy to dig any deeper. When you read a bit more, a lot more material (other than just the surface material) - becomes quite apparent what is really going on. And there is a lot, lot more than just that - this is just an extra example I am including.

Quote from: SuperPhoto on June 04, 2024, 19:12

I have - and while there seemed to be a brief interest (aka sales) from agencies, primilarly Pond5, haven't really seen any sales since then...
I think 'maybe' I 'made' $500-$600 in sales from 360 footage, but probably spent about the same in various gear + time invested/etc... Maybe I made more, don't recall. Just wasn't quite what I was expecting (I thought there would be huge demand + sales for the content I produced).

May I ask what kind of 360 footages you have uploaded?

Sure - I did a variety, everything from walk throughs, to non moving (i.e., just putting the camera in a crowd, & letting it video tape)... I think in 2018/2019 there was a surge in interest (some of the agencies were promoting it a bit, even was a little big on 'youtube', etc), and then all of the sudden, didn't seem to be too much interest in it...

The 360 is/was kind of interesting though. I liked it - I found it seemed there was more interest in professional settings (i.e., some real estate meetings I went to - people would be recording people talking at a board room meeting/table/etc). It was more for 'reference' for later usage, and I think transcription/etc...

I really would have stopped at f)... you sounded like a reasonably well-rounded, reasonably intelligent member of society up until that point. You always have to go and ruin it though!

Thank-you for giving me credit though for being an intelligent person, and quite well rounded. I am. My last statement was just as intelligent, well researched. Sounds like you are guy that needs to hear from someone who has credentials as well as an authority figure - I have them, very official ones too - and also spoke with many 'official authority figure' people in addition to reading many 'official reports' - so - I do know what I am talking about. I do photography for fun, and I like reading about photography in this forum.

Sorry to hear you fell for the convid scam... but it really was. I am assuming you got the injections - sorry to hear that - you really shouldn't get any more. It was pretty much purely psychological - nothing you could 'catch' (people 'got sick' from the intentional poisons sprayed on the PPE + military psych tactics), but people "needed" to get scared enough such that they couldn't think straight, would believe the tell-lie-vision and high paid off official figures to 'follow orders'. Most people sadly complied out of fear of 'poverty' (i.e., financial threats were used as a weapon), and/or some people genuinely trusted the t.v. and were 'afraid' of 'ill health'.

The really sad thing is that many people who believe strongly in the convid cult (and it really is just a belief, and very 'cultish' with all the rituals, the diaper/mask wearing, the incessant need to 'sanitize' their hands, etc) - sadly were pushed so hard emotionally - that right now they could be presented with all the facts & figures in the world - and would think 'those' were 'fake' - because it didn't align with their belief system that had been forcefully shoved into them. I haven't yet figured out how to get (consistently) through to people like that. I hope one day you figure it out one day, hopefully sooner than later.

The "ethnic diversity" is part of the subterfuge to undermine/impoverish primarily (white/caucasian) western nations. It's been in the work for decades, but really ramped up the last few years. Basically - with the pretense of 'helping others' - using people's money to provide free food, free lodging, free education, free cars, free free free - at the expense of most who worked their whole lives to go for a 'good life'. It's a tactic to attempt to make people's (fiat currency) savings/etc worthless. (There's ways around that - one of the biggest being to outright 'own' land - which people are being discouraged from doing). "Most" (of course, not all) but most other cultures don't share the same values as "Christian" nations, and don't share the same ethical or moral concerns as them. It's an attempt to both undermine the fabric of what once were prosperous people, while simultaneously attempting to impoverish them. There is also "reverse racism" - an open attack on "white/caucasian" people with things like hiring firms only hiring exclusively "bipoc" ("black/indigenous/people of color") people, again with the pretext of "helping others" - when in fact it really has absolutely nothing to do with that, as well as "laws" (i.e., "anti-hate" which in itself are actually quite 'hateful' and have absolutely nothing to do with 'stopping hate' - but are designed to make 'white/caucasian' people fearful of stating the obvious, and/or questioning what is really going on). It's been an open campaign by very wealthy oligarchs (i.e., ala open society foundation, bill & melinda gates foundation, etc, etc) to attack a way of life that western (white/european) countries became accustomed to.

Short version - "it" really was organized (has been for several decades, march 2020 was the 'launch' date) - by a small group of financially rich, but utterly insane psychotic individuals that crave power and control. Two main purposes (not the only ones) were to permanently maim people (via 'injections') because it is a lot easier to control 'sick' people as opposed to healthy people, as well as do massive money printing to steal their wealth via "mysterious inflation". Yes, people became 'ill' - but they did before - and the will after - there was nothing people could 'catch' (and still isn't) - it was the poisons on the PPE + psych tactics. And the way most people were controlled (surprisingly successfully) was through finances (threatening finances/fear, or financial incentives to 'go along' with it) + fear of ill health. There of course is a lot more to it than that, but that is the short & sweet synopsis.

Hi Cees:

Suggesting, since it seems you are starting out.

a) For the testimonials - why not directly link to those people's profiles/online presences? Initially I thought those were fake testimonials (because the pictures look like 'stock photos') - but investigated a bit further and they do seem to be genuine photographers. Adding direct links would add to the legitimacy.

b) Good job on making your own business, good luck. You should check out one of your main competitors (microstockplus/stocksubmitter) if you haven't already. They've been in the game quite a long time, and they aren't the only one. They aren't the only one though. (There are also very good other 'ai' keywording tools)

c) My 'feeling' (could be mistaken) is that you may find it challenging to get customers, because (at the moment) you don't really seem to offer anything new. Although - it seems you've found at least 5 ppl (from the testimonials) which I suppose is pretty good.

d) How 'good' are your backend prompts (for the "ai"?) Assuming you are using chatGPT/API on the backend. I find a lot of the prompts companies are using still provide buggy results from chatGPT - i.e., nonsensical/irrelevant titles, inaccurate titling of images/videos/etc... Have you tested this on a large set of different images (i.e., 1,000+ unique types of images/videos/etc?)

e) Pricing seems a bit 'high' - but does seem microstock plus/stocksubmitter has found success with similar pricing... but it seems a lot of 'microstockers' barely make ends meet, yet alone "$16,000" from a single agency like Envato as you have in one in your sample images... Curious - is that based on a real profile (i.e., yours?) If so - the earnings say "$69,212" between 4 agencies (envato/shutterstock/adobe/freepik) for a "single" year...

Based on what I've seen people post here (as well as personal earnings) - that seems rather unrealistic for the 'average' microstocker. I'm sure there are probably some very established contributors making that and much more in the current environment dealing with things like east indian spammers/thieves, agencies 'good news' e-mails, etc - but it seems many post of "look at how much money I'm making" (esp. in this forum) tend to be at most in the $1k/month range - usually between 20-30 different agencies, let along 4 like you have here...

f) Please also make the 'automatic picture' update stop if I click it/etc on the pricing page. It is difficult to read when the flipbook constanly rotates between the images

g) Also - in one of your sample images on the pricing page, please remove the 'ethnic diversity' 'folder' sample stuff, that is such an overused/annoying term pushed by the WEF/UN/etc designed to try and impoverish western nations... the mantra of "diversity inclusion equity" is actually an acronym of "d.i.e." (which is what the pyschopaths pushing this agenda) are trying to do... in addition to companies like "ipsos mori" polls (which is latin for "they die") pushing the convid scam (never was a 'virus', still isn't - poison was in the masks/'tests' & ultimate 'shots, etc)... the 'ethnic diversity' "d.i.e. // "diversity inclusion equity") is part of that sick nonsense...

Anyways, other than that - good luck!